GENEVA: The UN refugee agency on Tuesday accused Sri Lanka of breaking international law in its widening campaign to kick out Pakistani asylum seekers without a fair hearing.
â€œFundamentally, this is a breach of the principle of no forced returns. Thatâ€™s a clear violation of international law,â€ said Adrian Edwards, spokesperson for the UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR).

Sri Lanka has deported 88 Pakistanis since August 1, despite claims that they could be at risk in their homeland, Edwards said.

Starting with men who had been placed in detention, the country has widened the net to cover whole families, he told reporters.

â€œWe are very concerned at the continued deportations that are happening. We want deportations stopped.â€

In all, there are now 11 women and eight children among the deported, said Edwards.

â€œSome of the latest deportees had their passports and asylum-seeker certificates seized last week. They were told to go to Colombo airport, where they were placed on flights to Pakistan,â€ he said.

He added that UNHCR staff had also heard of families being separated â€” including a man sent home over a week ago and whose pregnant wife remains in Sri Lanka.

Hundreds of Pakistani Christians fleeing persecution have been arriving in Sri Lanka in search of a haven.

Sri Lanka has defended its crackdown, saying a stateâ€™s responsibility under international law had to be â€œnuanced and balanced in the context of domestic compulsionsâ€.

Edwards could not immediately give details about the background of the deportees but said UNHCR guidelines stipulate that asylum claims from Pakistanâ€™s Christian, Ahmadiyya Muslim and Shia Muslim minorities should be given particularly careful attention.

He said UNHCR also wants access to 157 asylum seekers â€“ including 84 Pakistanis, 71 Afghans and two Iranians â€“ who remain in detention in Sri Lanka.

A rather heartless act of sending persecuted folks back into the lion's den.

But then Sri Lankans have always shown that they are heartless and have no humanity in them when their Buddhist aims and majorityism is threatened. Too many Muslims and Christians would change the demography?

Or is it that they want ot show they are the handmaiden of the Pakistani Sunni Govt and not caring a damn about the asylum seekers being wiped out on return?

Why not UN slams Terrorist Pakistan first about persecuting minorities since 47?

Where was UN when Terrorist Pakistan killed 3 million Bangladeshi and raped 200,000 women?

Where was UN when Terrorist Pakistan gave shelter to OBL?

UN was and is a joke from inception , just an toy in USA & NATO hand

In Raan of kutch incident in 1964 , they asked to seize 300+ Sq Km to Pakis & In 1948 they made mind blowing decision on cease fire line as LOC . But when tables were turned in 1965 & 1971
they asked India to vacate the the land of pakis which were occupied by Indian ARMY

A rather heartless act of sending persecuted folks back into the lion's den.

But then Sri Lankans have always shown that they are heartless and have no humanity in them when their Buddhist aims and majorityism is threatened. Too many Muslims and Christians would change the demography?

Or is it that they want ot show they are the handmaiden of the Pakistani Sunni Govt and not caring a damn about the asylum seekers being wiped out on return?

India didn't even give citizenship for those people. But your people say Tamils care about Tamils. Those poor refugees still live in misery. Sri Lanka has never said we don't take them back. Sri Lanka has always welcomed them. But the issue is that many do not want to come after living is so many years in India. Before pointing fingers at us please grant citizenship to those people or try to elevate their living standard.

I do not now about the court order though we cannot take any refugees because we cannot sustain them. Why not India the rising super power take them instead?

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Because you claim you are the most humane nation in the world and so they flock to you.

India didn't even give citizenship for those people. But your people say Tamils care about Tamils. Those poor refugees still live in misery. Sri Lanka has never said we don't take them back. Sri Lanka has always welcomed them. But the issue is that many do not want to come after living is so many years in India. Before pointing fingers at us please grant citizenship to those people or try to elevate their living standard.

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We care.

Sure we do.

That is why Tibetans, East Pakistanis, SL Tamils, Afghans, Iranis all have got refuge.

Genetic studies on the Sinhalese is part of population genetics investigating the origins of the Sinhalese populations today.

Studies looking at the origin of the Sinhalese have been contradictory. Older studies suggest a predominantly Tamil origin followed by a significant Bengali contribution with no North Western Indian contribution. While modern studies point towards a predominantly Bengali contribution and a minor Tamil and North Western Indian contribution

When Etisalat dreams of a Sri Lanka where everyone is connected, itâ€™s clearly thinking only of the Sinhalese. Why else would the companyâ€™s website feature, so prominently, a Lion to depict â€˜everyoneâ€™ in Sri Lanka?

In popular media, corporate marketing and government output, there are numerous other examples of a racism so deeply internalised and ingrained in Sri Lanka that even when flagged, it is dismissed as unimportant or at best, of marginal and passing interest.

Another particularly revealing example from Government recently came in the form of the Police spokespersonâ€™s comments over an ill-thought out and executed census of vehicular traffic coming into Colombo. As reported in Ceylon Today, the forms handed out to motorists in light vehicles were only in Sinhala, raising the ire of the Governmentâ€™s own Minister of National Languages and Social Integration, Vasudeva Nanayakkara.

Speaking to Ceylon Today, Nanayakkara said handing over forms only in the Sinhala language is a violation of the National Language Policy. He added, the police are bound to follow the National Language Policy and accordingly the forms should have been trilingual.

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The Minister also diplomatically noted that the forms could not have been done at the instruction of the Inspector General of Police. This ostensible support of the National Language Policy notwithstanding, the Police spokesmanâ€™s comments tell another story.

Police Media Spokesperson, SSP Prashantha Jayakody said the police were unable to give the forms in all three languages as the decision to conduct the survey was a sudden one. He said, no driver was forced to fill the forms, and as the forms were easy to understand, it was not a serious issue.

When Ceylon Today questioned whether the police are planning on giving out the forms in Tamil and English languages as well, he said, at the moment they have no such plan to do so.

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Emphasis ours.

So not only do the Police not see any need to comply with the Governmentâ€™s own language policies, they think non-compliance isnâ€™t really a big problem. The animating mentality, much like Etisalatâ€™s graphic, is quite simply racist.

The litmus test is a very simple one â€“ role reversal. The Police spokesman in particular and all the Sinhalese who think that the marginalisation of Tamil, and by extension, the Tamil people, is â€œnot a serious issueâ€, should try to fill out the following form, given that itâ€™s so â€œeasy to understandâ€.

(This is in SL language and so may not have come correct as my compute does not have the language since it is not important)

This is a translation into Tamil of the original form in Sinhala handed to motorists by the Police, which is accessible on the web. If the majority of readers and the Police spokesman himself cannot fill this out, then why flippantly suggest that Tamils find it any easier to fill it out in Sinhalese?

Ingrained racism in Sri Lanka runs deep, and is reflected even in the assumption that those calling a leading hospitalâ€™s hotline are Sinhalese.

The interim recommendations of the LLRC, released as far back as November 2010, clearly noted that â€œmany people who gave evidence before the Commission expressed grave concern that they were expected to communicate with public officials or perfect documents in a language they did not understandâ€.

In the LLRCâ€™s Final Report, released a year after, it noted with regret that â€œrecommendations on urgent measures made by the Commission in its interim communication to the President on these matters have yet to be implementedâ€ (Section 8.229). Page 308 â€“ 310 of the LLRCâ€™s Final Report have a number of extremely insightful observations, including from members of the Buddhist clergy, about how the marginalisation of the Tamil language, and by extension, the marginalisation of the Tamil community, is a very serious impediment to reconciliation post-war.

And yet why is there no greater condemnation over the Police spokesmanâ€™s outrageous sentiments, or the inability of public institutions to greet people in a language that reflects what they would choose to communicate in? Why donâ€™t we identify and condemn marketing that conflates Sinhalese as a group with Sri Lanka as a place? Perhaps the majority, comfortable in the knowledge that their language is after all, what really matters in Sri Lanka, remain oblivious to how demeaning and violent it is to be told that non-representation and non-use of a language is â€œnot a serious issueâ€.

There is some hope. As @prabudeepan notes,

Groundviews @groundviews
Speaking to Ceylon Today, Nanayakkara said handing over forms only in the Sinhala language is a violation of the... Ceylon Today | Vehicle survey forms only in Sinhala
Pd. @prabudeepan
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@groundviews I know friends who refused to accept it since it wasnt in Tamil. Even though they were Sinhalese.
8:07 AM - 14 Feb 2013

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We wonder though whether in a country where racism is so ingrained it is invisible to the majority, small gestures of outrage are enough to avert another drift into open communal violence.

I do not now about the court order though we cannot take any refugees because we cannot sustain them. Why not India the rising super power take them instead?

India didn't even give citizenship for those people. But your people say Tamils care about Tamils. Those poor refugees still live in misery. Sri Lanka has never said we don't take them back. Sri Lanka has always welcomed them. But the issue is that many do not want to come after living is so many years in India. Before pointing fingers at us please grant citizenship to those people or try to elevate their living standard.

Are all Sri Lankans like you? Don't know the facts but come to argue, painting themselves as idiots in the process?
But, can't blame you kid, your stock's source of entertainment are perverted like the 'love letter' distortion saga.

Yes, we do care for Tamils. Who said we don't, your MoD website article?

Must be a great privilege for them live in misery in India so they don't want to return to Sri Lanka. Did misery become a second nature to them?

So, at least you agree we didn't turn our backs to refugees like Sri-Lanka is doing, isn't it.

Citizenship again, why? who was the author of the article which said India has to give Sri Lankan Tamils citizenship? Or is it from your fertile imagination?

But, the moot point is Sri-Lanka which now boasts of best %GDP growth and best GDP/capita isn't able to convince it's citizens to come back to their homes. Or providing money to India who is looking after their sustenance.

Are all Sri Lankans like you? Don't know the facts but come to argue, painting themselves as idiots in the process?
But, can't blame you kid, your stock's source of entertainment are perverted like the 'love letter' distortion saga.

Fair point. But those Tamils were blood relatives of Tamilnadu Tamils. Those Tamilnadu Tamils cry over anything happens to Sri Lankan Tamils but when it comes to really do something for them they look away. Shame.

So, at least you agree we didn't turn our backs to refugees like Sri-Lanka is doing, isn't it.

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We simply cannot sustain them that is the reason. We have no new land to settle them nor our government coffers are rich enough to support them. It is better they should be sent to somewhere much better than us. But it should definitely not to be Pakistan.

Citizenship again, why? who was the author of the article which said India has to give Sri Lankan Tamils citizenship? Or is it from your fertile imagination?

But, the moot point is Sri-Lanka which now boasts of best %GDP growth and best GDP/capita isn't able to convince it's citizens to come back to their homes. Or providing money to India who is looking after their sustenance.

Fair point. But those Tamils were blood relatives of Tamilnadu Tamils. Those Tamilnadu Tamils cry over anything happens to Sri Lankan Tamils but when it comes to really do something for them they look away. Shame.

We simply cannot sustain them that is the reason. We have no new land to settle them nor our government coffers are rich enough to support them. It is better they should be sent to somewhere much better than us. But it should definitely not to be Pakistan.

We always welcome them because they are our citizens. It is the fact that they do not want to come because of the social reason.

Wait and see

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You are aware of it only 'NOW' and that exactly was my point.

And there shouldn't have been a sliver of confusion over what was my point, for who is able to write a error free English sentence.

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And so are all Pakistanis blood relatives of Indians? So what do you expect us to do?

BTW, Bangladeshis, then East Pakistanis were also our blood relatives.

The country whose subjects they are, are responsible for them. Morally and legally.

And shame is on the country who can't take responsibility.

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You have off loaded thousands of SL Tamils into refugee camps in India. The money you save from that can be spent on this poor Pakistani refugees instead of spending on the Sinhalese.

Your empty coffers point is a moot because of the above point.

Also, see Lebanon, it hasn't turned it's back on Syrian refugees. And last I knew Lebanese coffers weren't overflowing with money.

But, also, being Bum-Chums of Pak you always can persuade them from persecuting minorities in the first place.

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The same social reason for which these refugees don't want to return to Pakistan?

My dear, world over that social issue is called 'persecution' update your vocabulary.

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Obviously, we all shall wait and see. But, precedent makes it easier to predict.

A rather heartless act of sending persecuted folks back into the lion's den.

But then Sri Lankans have always shown that they are heartless and have no humanity in them when their Buddhist aims and majorityism is threatened. Too many Muslims and Christians would change the demography?

Or is it that they want ot show they are the handmaiden of the Pakistani Sunni Govt and not caring a damn about the asylum seekers being wiped out on return?

Click to expand...

These pakistani refugees are living in a christian dominated area which is Negombo a bit far from Colombo city. It is the christian ppl there who are making noises because the pakistani refugee influx has been too big to bear. There is no religious angle to it.

SL is right to deport them as SL is not a UN signatory to accept refugees. And even though UN has promised quick action, they are very slow and some are even here in SL for 6+ years.
Same time UN when pointing at SL unfairly (as UN is another foriegn policy arm of US) asks SL to accept refugees. That is a joke in the first place.

The only thing that is highlighted here is anti SL propaganda are hollow. The fact that people of different faiths come to SL seeking protection shows how the seperatist propaganda is wrong.

And these fellows have been fed by SL people and churches. I know people from Negombo so i know how they face hardships because of refugee influx.

For an anti SL racist baboon there is no wonder there is still left to point at SL for NOT accepting refugees. lol